MKU flouts norms, picks new professors to be PhD guides

By Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam  |  Express News Service  |   Published: 27th December 2017 03:03 AM  |  

 

MADURAI: Flouting norms, the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) has appointed freshers as research guides for PhD students. The appointments have created talk among academicians, who are saying that the move will put the future of the students at stake.

MKU recently sanctioned guideship for 250 professors working in affiliated colleges, in violation of the rules and regulations of the University Grant Commission (UGC). As per the rules, to be a PhD supervisor, a university professor should have five research publications in refereed journals. An associate and assistant professor of a university or deemed university or a college must have at least two research publications in the refereed journals.

A research supervisor or co-supervisor who is a professor cannot guide over three MPhil and eight PhD scholars. An associate professor can guide two MPhil and six PhD scholars. An assistant professor can guide one MPhil and four PhD scholars, as per the norms.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Head of a Department said, “MKU has sanctioned guideship of 10 to 20 freshers who obtained their doctorate last year and who do not have the required number of published research papers. Some of the publications of the guideship candidates do not fall under the UGC’s prescribed list of refereed journals.”

Professor C Pichandy, former president of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) said that the appointments would affect the PhD students. He also said that if the guideship of a professor is cancelled, the students’ academic pursuit would be in jeopardy. “If students are trained under mentors without experience, there are chances of the’ PhDs getting cancelled,” he said.

Talking about the issue, P P Chellathurai, MKU Vice Chancellor, said, “As per the UGC norms 2016, permanent professors, associate and assistant professors need to have two publications in refereed journals. The UGC norms and regulations does not talk about the teaching experience.” He added, “We received over 300 applications. Some of them were already long pending. Earlier, MKU had followed the UGC norms of 2009. For approving the guideship, the application was sent to experts inside and outside the university. They had taken a year to approve. We are following the 2016 norms of the UGC.”